Saturday, January 24, 2015

The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library is the largest building in the world dedicated to the containment and preservation of rare books, manuscripts, and documents. It was designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill and is located in New Haven, Connecticut. Situated on Yale University's Hewitt Quadrangle, the building was designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and completed in 1963. Established by a gift of the Beinecke family and given its own endowment, the library is financially independent from the university and is co-governed by the University Library and Yale Corporation. The library's iconic building is scheduled to close for major renovation following Yale University’s commencement ceremonies in May 2015. The renovation will replace the building's mechanical systems and expand its research, teaching, storage, and exhibition capabilities, and should be complete in September 2016. A temporary reading room in Yale's Sterling Memorial Library will provide researchers access to the library’s collections during the renovation.

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A six-story above-ground glass-enclosed tower of book stacks is surrounded by a windowless rectangular outer shell, supported only on four massive piers at the corners of the building, which descend 50 feet to bedrock. The outer walls are made of translucent veined marble panels quarried from Danby, Vermont, which transmit subdued lighting from outside, while providing protection from direct sunlight. At night, the stone panels transmit light from the interior, giving the exterior of the building an amber glow. The outside dimensions have "Platonic" mathematical proportions of 1:2:3 (height: width: length). The building has been called a precious "jewel box", and also a "laboratory for the humanities".

A public exhibition hall surrounds the glass stack tower, and displays among other things, one of the 48 extant copies of the Gutenberg Bible. Two basement floors extend under much of Hewitt Quadrangle. The first level down, the "Court" level, centers on a sunken courtyard in front of the Beinecke, which features The Garden (Pyramid, Sun, and Cube). These are abstract allegorical sculptures by Isamu Noguchi that are said to represent time (the pyramid), sun (the disc), and chance (the cube). This level also features a secure reading room for visiting researchers, administrative offices, and book storage areas. The level of the building two floors below ground has movable-aisle compact shelving for books and archives.

The Beinecke is one of the largest buildings in the world devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts. The library has room in the central tower for 180,000 volumes and room for over 600,000 volumes in the underground book stacks. The library's collection, which is housed both in the library's main building and at Yale University's Library Shelving Facility in Hamden, Connecticut, totals roughly 1 million volumes and several million manuscripts. [SOURCE]

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In the late 19th century, rare and valuable books of the Library of Yale Colleg e were placed on special shelving at the College Library, now known as Dwight Hall. When the university received a multimillion-dollar bequest from John W. Sterling for the construction of Sterling Memorial Library in 1918, the university decided to create a dedicated reading room for its rare books, which became the building's Rare Book Room when the building opened in 1930. Because the bequest did not contain an allowance for books or materials, Yale professor Chauncey Brewster Tinker petitioned its alumni to donate materials that would give the university a collection as monumental as its new building. By the time Sterling opened, Tinker's appeal garnered an impressive collection of rare books, including a Gutenberg Bible from Anna M. Harkness and several major collections from the Beinecke family, most notably its collection on the American West. [SOURCE]

Beinecke Rare Book Library, Two volumes of original Gutenberg Bibles. Image credit Valerio_B

The U995 has found its final destination at the Ostsee beach just a few kilometers from Kiel. The Kriegsmarine put 603 submarines of VIIC/41 type into service between 1939 and 1944. It was one of the most important submarine types of the Second World War. From 1943 till 1945 the U 995 fulfilled several missions against allied convoys heading for Murmansk. In 1945 the submarine was captured by the allies and from then it served in the Norwegian navy. The submarine was stricken from Norwegian service in 1965 and the Norwegians offered the German government the boat in for the symbolic price of one Deutsche Mark (about 60 US cents), who turned down the offer, but was saved by the German Navy League, DMB, where its became a museum ship at Laboe Naval Memorial in October 1971.

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Worth traveling to Laboe, about 20 kilometers from the port of Kiel, at the mouth of the fjord, to admire the lines of this spectacular underwater nearly 70 meters long, a single model. Right next to the U-995 lies a naval memorial museum, Ehrenmal Marine , where you can learn a lot more of this and other German submarines, in addition to its role during the two world wars. This becomes clear when we visit the memorial and gaze upon the vast collection of ceremonial banners and ribbons from navies and organisations from all over the world.

By climbing 341 steps or by taking the elevator! and will reach the top of the memorial, which provides a magnificent view of the German inland, the sea, the beaches and last-but-not-least, the U-boat (U 995 which can also be visited) lying some 85 meters below you.

Apart from the massive tower with observation platform and the actual memorial hall, the complex includes various exhibition rooms and a 'history hall', containing lots of scale models, maps and information on the evolution of the German Navy. One of the highlights of the exhibition is the huge scale-model of the German battleship "Bismarck".

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A Ship Museum at Laboe Naval Memorial. Image credit arjay5020

The Zero Milestone in Washington, is based on The Roman Empire’s Golden Milestone, the Zero Milestone was originally intended to be the location from which all distances in the United States were measured. The idea originated with advocate Dr. S. M. Johnson, formally proposed on June 7, 1919. He was inspired by ancient Rome's Golden Milestone located in the Forum, a strong supporter of the Good Roads Movement, which pushed for the construction of better roads across the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Image credit Kim Davies

On July 7, 1919, a temporary marker for the Zero Milestone was dedicated on the Ellipse south of the White House during ceremonies launching the Army's first attempt to send a convoy of military vehicles across the country to San Francisco, California. On June 5, 1920, Congress authorized the Secretary of War to erect the current monument, design to be approved by the Commission of Fine Arts and installed at no expense to the government. Dr. Johnson took charge of the details and raised donations for the design and construction. The permanent Zero Milestone was dedicated in a ceremony on June 4, 1923.

The monument stands just south of the White House at the north edge of the Ellipse, within President's Park. A top the monument is a bronze 16-point compass rose with a very small worn-down pyramid at its center whose top serves as a National Geodetic Survey benchmark. Designed by Washington architect Horace W. Peaslee, the monolith is about 2 feet square and about 4 feet high. It is made of precambrian Milford granite from Milford, Massachusetts, light pinkish to greenish gray, with spots of black biotite mica. The bronze disk on top of the milestone is "an adaptation from ancient portolan charts of the so-called wind roses or compass roses from the points of which extended radial lines to all parts of the then known world—the prototype of the modern mariner's compass."

The Zero Milestone in Washington never became the American equivalent of Rome's Golden Milestone. Today, it remains in place, baffling tourists and serving mainly as a resting place for their belongings while they take photographs of each other standing in front of the White House. It is forgotten for the most part. Periodically, it is threatened with removal by the National Park Service as it considers options for revitalizing the Ellipse. But for historians, the Zero Milestone marks the place where "a new era" began.

Kosciuszko Mound "kopiec Kosciuszki" is the most famous mound in Kraków, Poland, raised in 1820-1823. it was erected by Cracovians in memory of the great Polish National hero Tadeusz Kosciuszko. The man-made mound modeled after Kraków's prehistoric mounds of Krak and Wanda. A sinuous path leads to the top, approx. 326 meters or 1,070 ft above sea level, with a panoramic view of the Vistula River and the city. It was completed in November 1823. The location selected for the monument was the natural Blessed Bronislawa Hill "Wzgórze bl. Bronislawy", also known as Sikornik at the height of 34.1 m, situated in the western part of Kraków's Zwierzyniec District. It is one of Kraków's four mounds.

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Kosciuszko Mound with a base diameter of 80 meters, 8.5 meters in diameter at the apex and 34.1 m in height. At the base of the Mound, the Founding Act was deposited in a glass and marble case. At the top, a granite boulder, brought from the Tatra Mountains, was placed, bearing the inscription “Kosciuszce” (To Kosciuszko). Inside the mound, urns were buried with soil from the Polish and American battlefields where Kosciuszko fought.

In between 1850 – 1854, the Austrian authorities built a brick bastion around the Mound and began using it as a strategic lookout. As compensation for an earlier historical church that had been demolished, a neo-Gothic chapel of Blessed Bronislawa was also built. However, the Austrian fortifications, including the gateway and the south-western rampart and entrenchment were eventually dismantled following World War II, between 1945 and 1956.

Next to the Mound there is a museum devoted to Kosciuszko, that displays artifacts and mementoes of his life and achievements. In 1997, heavy rains eroded the Mound, thus threatening its existence. It went through a restoration process from 1999 to 2003 in which state-of-the-art technology and modern materials were used. The Mound was equipped with a drainage system and a new waterproofing membrane. [Source]

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The most famous mound in Poland, Kosciuszko Mound is situated on the Blessed Bronislawa Hill in Krakow. A symbolic tomb is a tribute to the great national hero, Tadeusz Kosciuszko. Image credit Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland

The Frightful pathway between Catalonia and Aragon, Spain, the River Noguera Ribagorçana passes through the Serra del Montsec mountain system, creating a beautiful hiking destination called Congost de Mont-Rebei. A stunning views and frightful pathways through an ecological paradise. The Mont-rebei Gorge natural space covers a surface area of about 600 hectares. In April 14, 2005, the Congost de Mont-Rebei was declared a Wildlife Refuge. Walking between towering cliffs and vertiginous landscapes. For a few meters, the road is literally carved into the rock, hanging from the cliffs. The route, which coincides with the GR-1, is protected by railings and benches to regain strength and enjoy the spectacular views. The walls of limestone of the gorge reach heights of 500 meters vertical drop and points where the minimum width is only 20 meters, with embedded pathways for visitors to take in the gorgeous scenic views. A very interesting to see point, it is the Romanesque chapel of Pertusa, with dizzying views of the marsh Caselles. Also very interesting suspension bridge at the end of the tour.

Congost de Mont-rebei in Spain offers both. The Mont-rebei area is so special because of the lush flora and abundant animal species that live in and around the mountains, which are crisscrossed by the shimmering blue waters of rivers innumerable. This creates a near-infinite range of environs for all manner of creatures to find their home: Rocky peaks high in the atmosphere, lush forests spilling down the mountainside and finishing in the cool river waters below. [Fist Image credit Ramón Etis]

Perhaps the most famous part of the mountain, Congost de Mont-rebei is a steep canyon cut into the rocky peaks, plunging hundreds of feet down sheer rock walls. Narrow walking paths etched into the sides of the canyon provide adventurous tourists and hikers with breathtaking views and spellbinding glimpses directly down into the canyon floor.

Popular with mountain bikers and hikers in particular, the canyon offers as much of a challenge as it does a scenic view of the landscape. The paths are steep, rocky and frightfully thin, making humans to feel right at home with the mountain goats and birds that populate the rocky environ, which may, in fact, be visiting this beautiful place for the very same reasons as tourists do: nature, filled with nature.

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Footbridge over the river Noguera Ribagorzana. The gateway itself is the starting point of the path between the Congost de Mont-Rebei and shelter Montfalco and constitutes a real crossroads and symbolic bond between the lands of Aragon and Catalonia located in the east and west margins of the river Noguera Ribagorzana. Image credit Juanedc